Term Limits in Cuba

Raul Castro announced Sunday that he will step down as Cuba’s president in 2018 following a final five-year term, for the first time putting a date on the end of the Castro era. He tapped rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel as his top lieutenant and first in the line of succession.

The 81-year-old Castro also said he hopes to establish two-term limits and age caps for political offices including the presidency – an astonishing prospect for a nation led by Castro or his older brother Fidel since their 1959 revolution.

That would be a very good thing.

Communist dictatorships all too often turn into a type of feudal monarchy. We see this in North Korea, and Cuba looked to be heading that way.

I think term limits are an excellent thing as they mean no one person remains in power for ever, and as importantly focus politicians on what they can achieve in their limited time in the top job rather than trying to hang on forever.

Since taking over from Fidel in 2006, Castro has instituted a slate of important economic and social changes, expanding private enterprise, legalizing a real estate market and relaxing hated travel restrictions.

Still, the country remains ruled by the Communist Party and any opposition to it lacks legal recognition.

About time the US removed the embargoes I reckon. The tourist industry would boom and cigars could be export.
one sure way to get people of Cuba to grow would be to give them a taste of greater economic freedoms

toms

Yeah, because the gangster regime of Fulgencio Batista was really a shining light of modern capitalism… The Cuban reevolution overthrew a corrupt Quisling regime and restored sovereignty to the Cuban people, and then defied the unrelenting hostility of the United States to create probably the most equal Central American society of all. The Cuban revolution would have been wildly successful rather than a bit of a curates egg if not for the imperialist aggression of the USA and it’s determination to prevent the Cuban people deciding their own destiny.

If Cuba transforms into something resembling a democracy on it’s own terms and without succumbing to the tyranny of global capitalist authoritarianism, it will be a beacon to people everywhere.

toms

“ I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear. ”

gazzmaniac

The Cuban reevolution overthrew a corrupt Quisling regime and restored sovereignty to the Cuban people, and then defied the unrelenting hostility of the United States to create probably the most equal Central American society of all.

vibenna

“Communist dictatorships all too often turn into a type of feudal monarchy”

Not just communist dictatorships. A certain city state often praised by commentators here seems to be going the same way. In fact, it reinforced the power of the ruling family by introducing term limits for ministers ! Oh, but with ‘obvious exceptions.’

Anthony

Funny how it’s OK to replace a right ring authoritarian regime with a left wing authoritarian regime as according to lefties like Toms two wrongs do make a right (or should that be a left). I don’t see masses of people (actually no people that I’m aware of) wanting to move to Cuba or North Korea – perhaps Toms should go and set an example!